U.S. announces $50 million Tennessee Superfund site cleanup agreement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - OXY USA Inc, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp, has agreed to clean up contaminated water and sediments at a Superfund site in eastern Tennessee at a cost of more than $50 million, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday.

The agreement calls for the company to conduct the cleanup at the Copper Basin Mining District Superfund Site in Polk County at a cost of $40 million as well as reimbursing the EPA some $10.8 million for past work at the site, the two federal agencies said in a joint statement.

The federal government will pay OXY about $12.6 million towards the cleanup, based on U.S. ownership of part of the site from 1941 to 1946.